We've asked, "Will readers enjoy reading this?" to many and diverse pieces, choosing for this volume only those cases where we felt fairly confident of a "Yes, this is both readable and worth reading".
Selections include tales of the Pure Love industry (from "First Loves" and elsewhere); essays lying along various points of the lyrical-to-philosophical spectrum (from "First Essays"); frame stories of Bartleby Willard's life and times at Skullvalley After Whistletown Bookmakers, both from the standard and from a less standard SAWB mythology; many poems; several advertisements for Pure Love and related concepts; a few first-hand accounts of life in New York City; and a general sense of lonesome.
Is the book good?
We cannot say, but we pray
that it is good,
and that you'll find it
a pleasant stream, gently pulling you along
as you slowly sink deeper and deeper
into it's calm cool but persistent fellowship.
Your friends in a way
in that way we're all bound up as one,
your friends in that eternal magic way,
Bartleby Willard
Amble Whistletown
